Oak Harbor knocked out of district tournament | 13/14 Babe Ruth

The Oak Harbor 13/14 Babe Ruth baseball team, which also includes players from Coupeville, fell twice in the district tournament last week at Burlington's Rotary Park and was eliminated.

By Jim Waller • June 29, 2015 1:57 pm
Austin Boesch gets out of a rundown by slipping under the tag of Whatcom's first baseman Thursday.
Austin Boesch gets out of a rundown by slipping under the tag of Whatcom's first baseman Thursday.

The Oak Harbor 13/14 Babe Ruth baseball team, which also includes players from Coupeville, fell twice in the district tournament last week at Burlington’s Rotary Park and was eliminated.

Oak Harbor lost 14-3 in six innings to the Whatcom Reign Thursday, June 25, and then 11-0 in five innings to the Mount Vernon Diamond Dogs Friday.

Mount Vernon defeated Whatcom 12-0 Saturday for the district title.

In the losses to Whatcom and Mount Vernon, Oak Harbor suffered through error-filled first innings, fell behind 5-0 and couldn’t recover.

Against Whatcom, Oak Harbor scored once in the first inning and twice in the fifth.

Matt Hilborn reached on a two-out single in the first and scored on Thomas Anderson’s double.

In the fifth, Will Moyes doubled, driving in Caleb Fitzgerald and Jared Brown, who walked.

Oak Harbor collected only three other hits in the game. Hilborn stroked a double, and Austin Boesch and Connor Buenaventura added singles.

Brown took the pitching loss; Ty Eck and Elliott Johnson threw in relief.

Oak Harbor had even less offensive success against Mount Vernon, recording only three hits.

Things started well as Fitzgerald led off the first inning with a single and Brown walked, but both were stranded and Oak Harbor had few scoring chances the remainder of the game.

In fact, only two Oak Harbor batters reached base after Brown’s walk. Eck singled in the third inning and Jake Pease doubled in the fifth.

The district losses ended Oak Harbor’s season.

Coach Pete Richter said he saw “a lot of individual growth” in the players throughout the season.

“A lot of the 13s really woke up,” Richter said, “and competed with the 14s.”

The team’s growth could have been greater, according to Richter, but other activities, such as football camp, cut into practice and game time.

While Oak Harbor won only a handful of games, Richter said, the team was competitive in most.

It had a habit of suffering through what he called “that inning,” one bad inning that seemed to appear each game that sabotaged many great efforts.

“It’s just a matter of mental preparedness,” Richter said.

(Tim Steinke hustles to first in Thursday’s game. Photo by Jim Waller.)